2002.05.20

Asian Movie Week

Comments

SIFF 2002 is almost upon us, and since my current to-watch list is mostly comprised of Asian flicks, I decided to get into the mood with some DVDs.

Jakarta (자카르타, Korea) - This I’d seen before, a light-hearted heist picture involving three separate groups of criminals who hit the same bank on the same morning. It starts off as a rather routine story that doesn’t know whether to be humorous or vicious, and then rolls into a second half flashback sequence that actually ties things up rather ingeniously, and really puts the first half into a completely different light (with more than a few twists along the way). Not perfect, but really entertaining.

My Wife is a Gangster (조폭 마누라, Korea) - A silly gangster flick in which a female mafia boss marries a workaday salaryman in order to fulfill her sister’s dying wish. Nothing deep, but it has some genuine laugh-out-loud moments in addition to a few decent hand-to-hand combat scenes. Probably the first mafia movie I’ve ever seen without a single gun to be seen.

My Sassy Girl (엽기적인그녀, Korea) - This romantic comedy was a huge hit in Korea last year, and apparently based on an actual Korean college student’s blog. It details the romance between said student and a fiery-tempered girl who orders him around and shames him into doing humiliating things. Though this could easily have been painful to watch given the premise, it treats its characters with a sensitive hand and the result is one of the better films I’ve seen in recent memory. I hear Hollywood has acquired remake rights — I can’t imagine what kind of disaster they’ll manage to make out of this one. It doesn’t seem particularly suited to transplantation, and studios aren’t exactly known for sensitivity.

Samurai Fiction (Japan) - A rock ‘n roll/cowboy/samurai flick, if you can believe it, which ended up being much slower than I expected given the box’s claims of Pulp Fiction-inspired direction. The late hour I started watching probably didn’t help; I would like to give it another viewing but I probably won’t be able to before the disc comes due at Scarecrow.

There you have it, my first post in months! We’ll see how long ‘til the next one.


ID = 60; $post->blog_id = 1; $post->guid = "asian_movie_wee"; $post->comment_status = "open"; function get_option($option) { $settings = array( "disqus_forum_url" => "neonepiphany", "disqus_api_key" => "P3x8kgUz648mcuWEzpiOyeon4BAhuBlgpNAltiDcoXseti7TJ0uZ3Eko0vdsHgeY", "disqus_sort" => "", "disqus_partner_key" => "", "disqus_disable_sync" => "0" ); return $settings[$option]; } function get_permalink() { return "http://www.neonepiphany.com/blog/2002/05/20T001600"; } function get_the_title() { return "Asian Movie Week"; } function get_the_excerpt() { return "SIFF 2002 is almost upon us, and since my current to-watch list is mostly comprised of Asian flicks, I decided to get into the mood with some DVDs.\n\nJakarta (자카르타, Korea) - This I'd seen before, a light-hearted heist picture involving three separate groups of criminals who hit the same bank on the same morning. It starts off as a rather routine story that doesn't know whether to be humorous or vicious, and then rolls into a second half flashback sequence that actually ties things up rather ingeniously, and really puts the first half into a completely different light (with more than a few twists along the way). Not perfect, but really entertaining.\n\nMy Wife is a Gangster (조폭 마누라, Korea) - A silly gangster flick in which a female mafia boss marries a workaday salaryman in order to fulfill her sister's dying wish. Nothing deep, but it has some genuine laugh-out-loud moments in addition to a few decent hand-to-hand combat scenes. Probably the first mafia movie I've ever seen without a single gun to be seen.\n\nMy Sassy Girl (엽기적인그녀, Korea) - This romantic comedy was a huge hit in Korea last year, and apparently based on an actual Korean college student's blog. It details the romance between said student and a fiery-tempered girl who orders him around and shames him into doing humiliating things. Though this could easily have been painful to watch given the premise, it treats its characters with a sensitive hand and the result is one of the better films I've seen in recent memory. I hear Hollywood has acquired remake rights -- I can't imagine what kind of disaster they'll manage to make out of this one. It doesn't seem particularly suited to transplantation, and studios aren't exactly known for sensitivity.\n\nSamurai Fiction (Japan) - A rock 'n roll/cowboy/samurai flick, if you can believe it, which ended up being much slower than I expected given the box's claims of Pulp Fiction-inspired direction. The late hour I started watching probably didn't help; I would like to give it another viewing but I probably won't be able to before the disc comes due at Scarecrow.\n\nThere you have it, my first post in months! We'll see how long 'til the next one."; } function get_the_offset() { return -8; } function start_mt() { include('/home/ianthe/neonepiphany.com/mt/php/mt.php'); $mt = MT::get_instance(1, '/home/ianthe/neonepiphany.com/mt/mt-config.cgi'); return $mt; } function trackback_url() { return "http://www.neonepiphany.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/107"; } include('/home/ianthe/neonepiphany.com/mt/plugins/disqus/php/disqus.php'); include(dsq_comments_template(1)); ?>

Powered by
Movable Type 5.2
neonepiphany dot com